Volatile aroma compound production is affected by growth rate in S. cerevisiae

Federico Visinoni, Penghan Zhang, Katherine Hollywood, Silvia Carlin, Urska Vrhovsek, James Winterburn, Daniela Delneri

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The initial growth rate of a yeast strain is a key parameter in the production of fermented beverages. Fast growth is linked with higher fermentative capacity and results in less slow and stuck fermentations unable to reach the expected final gravity. As concentrations of metabolites are in constant state of flux, quantitative data on how growth rate affects the production of aromatic compounds becomes an important factor for brewers. Chemostats allow to set and keep a specific dilution rate throughout the fermentation and are ideal system to study the effect of growth on aroma production.
In this study, we run chemostats alongside batch and fed-batch cultures, compared volatile profiles detected at different growth rates, and identified those affected by the different feeding profiles. Specifically, we quantified six abundant aroma compounds produced in anaerobic glucose-limited continuous cultivations of S. cerevisiae at different dilution rates. We found that volatile production was affected by the growth rate in four out of six compounds assayed, with higher alcohols and esters following opposite trends. Batch and fed-batch fermentations were devised to study the extent by which the final concentration of volatile compounds is influenced by glucose availability. When compared to the batch system, fed-batch fermentations, where the yeast growth was artificially limited by a slow constant release of nutrients in the media, resulted in a significant increase in concentration of higher alcohols, mirroring the results obtained in continuous fermentations. This study paves the way to further process development optimization for the production of fermented beverages.
Original languageEnglish
JournalApplied and Environmental Microbiology|A E M
Volume88
Issue number23
Early online date15 Nov 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2022

Keywords

  • aromatic compounds
  • chemostat cultures
  • fermentation
  • yeast

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